Carl Chambers Rallye

[Rippthrough]

...I'd have thought someone who appreciates the engineering...

Exactly, the engineers intend it's best characteristics to be shown whilst driving it. It's an insult to the engineering involved not to drive it in my eyes!
And as you say, they're simple cars, if someone wants to keep one running for 50 years there's no issues with spares and replacement parts.

If you look at really old stuff it's always the provenance, period upgrades and the history of use of the car that's more important than the condition of the car itself anyway, so I'm not the only one...